Of Losers and Winners
by SSJGodRasengan
Summary: :High School AU: To say Magnolia High and Konoha High dislike each other would be the understatement of the year, you could almost always catch the students fighting in the street or pulling pranks on each other. As they all cross each other's paths more and more, they begin to learn exactly how different they truly are. T for Language
1. Tension Rises

_~Saturday, 3:22 PM~_

The three teenagers were walking around the town of Magnolia, talking about various things in general just to pass the time. Lucy Heartfilia, the girl in the middle, were listening to her two friends Natsu Dragneel, who was on her right, and Gray Fullbuster, who is walking on her left, talk about how glad they are that summer vacation is but a few weeks away.

"Uuuggh." Natsu groaned in annoyance. "I'm freaking tired of school. All this work about pointless crap we'll never actually use."

"Relax, summer is almost here." Gray reassured. "Soon enough you can take all your piles upon piles of failed tests and burn them, like you said you would."

Natsu gritted his teeth at that. He was barely passing his classes as it is, and he didn't need someone like the likes of Gray to remind him of that.

"Yeah, and maybe I'll throw that stupid dollar store necklace in the fire while I'm at it!"

"Really now?! Well if we're playing this game, then I'll just toss that lame-ass scarf of yours in there too!"

"Oh I'd like to see you-"

"Guys, come on!" Lucy interrupted. "We're all friends here. And besides summer is almost here! We should be making plans for what we're all going to do together!"

That was enough to get them to stop fighting. This was the norm for the trio. They'd talk for a while, then inevitably Natsu and Gray would butt heads and Lucy would have to dawn her metaphorical referee outfit and break it up.

"There's that new amusement park opening up a week after school ends. We could go there." Gray suggested.

"Oh yeah!" Lucy agreed. "That could be fun! That place is going to be really exciting by how everyone is hyping it up."

They talked about the amusement park for a good while. Although Natsu said that he'd probably just be there for the games and food due to him not being able to handle super-fast rides like the huge roller coaster that the park was going to have. Gray and Lucy laughed at Natsu's expression and started to talk about going with their friends.

Suddenly, they could hear angry shouts coming from the direction they were walking in. Curious, the gang walked faster and got a better look at what was happening. The one doing all the shouting turned out to be one of their friends, Gajeel Redfox.

"Oh geez." Lucy said under her breath.

"God freaking dammit!" Gajeel yelled out. "Naruto! I'm going to bash your head in!"

"What?!" Naruto yelled back smiling. "I didn't do anything bro!"

The one who answered to the name "Naruto" was sitting in the back seat of a car with two teenage boys up front, who were also smiling. He was trying to play innocent but at the same time was struggling to contain his laughter.

"Yeah man!" said the one driving. "We didn't see anything!"

"Like hell you didn't!" Gajeel shouted angrily while stomping his foot on the ground. "That blonde idiot is holding the freaking spray can in his hand!"

Naruto noticed what Gajeel said was true and quickly threw the can in the back seat, and then continued to deny Gajeel's accusations.

"What can?" Naruto asked, desperately trying to keep a straight face.

Gajeel was at his boiling point. He turned around and walked toward his car and pulled out a long rusty pipe. Naruto and his two friends mocked him by pretending that they were scared and "begged" him not to hurt them, but then started to laugh again.

"You'd probably be better off getting out a hose." The one driving exclaimed. "All that spray paint might seriously ruin your paint job."

The group of teens who angered Gajeel so much drove off before Gajeel could get close enough to do any damage. Gajeel shouted some swear words at them as they drove away and then threw down the rusty pipe in anger, cursing under his breath. Natsu, Lucy, and Gray walked up to him.

"Yo Gajeel." Natsu said cooly. "Quite a show that happend here."

"I'm going to beat them half to death, mark my words." Gajeel promised. "Just look at what they did to my baby!"

Gajeel pointed at his car and sure enough, it had seen better days. There was graffiti all over it. On both sides of the car were big letters that read: "I SUK DEEZ NUTZ". There were figures on the rear window that they assumed were supposed to be stools, and last but not least, there were drawings of leaves on the hood to represent the school the three boys in the car attend.

Natsu fell down on the floor and laughed hysterically, which didn't help Gajeel's mood in the least.

"Oh, this is funny to you?!" Gajeel screamed down at him.

"Oh my god that is hilarious!" Natsu managed to say through his laughter.

"It is not hilarious! They completely ruined my car!"

"That's rough man." Gray said, trying not to laugh. "Here we'll help you clean it up."

"Yeah we'll definitely help." Lucy agreed, also trying not to laugh, but not doing a good job.

After Natsu was able to breath again after his laughing fit they all got into the graffiti covered car and drove to Gajeel's house. Of course, they could see people staring and snickering as the vehicle passed them. When they arrived to their destination, Gajeel got out buckets of soapy water, some sponges, and a hose, and soon enough they all began to cleanse the car of the damage that was done.

"I can't believe they'd come after my car." Gajeel finally said, more calm now that the graffiti was going away. "Unbelievable."

"Yeah." Gray said while drenching the windows with a sponge. "Well, that's Konoha for you."

This sort of thing happened all the time. The three boys responsible for this come from Konoha, a town that is fifteen minutes away from Magnolia. They go to Konoha High school, home of the Konoha Ninjas. Natsu, Gray, Lucy, and Gajeel go to Magnolia High, home of the Magnolia Mages. Saying that the students from Magnolia High and Konoha High don't get along would be an understatement. They fight each other, argue with each other, prank each other, and just do whatever they can to ruin one another's day.

And today was Gajeel's turn to get reminded of that. As he sprayed the leaves off of the car, he continued to speak about getting back at them. He didn't know the other two teens in the car, but the one in particular that was riding in the back seat he knew all too well. That kid's name was Naruto Uzumaki, who's well known for always wearing a headband. A lot of Magnolia High students know him due to him being one of the guys that causes trouble for them the most. Gajeel hates his guts.

"We should kick their asses for this!" Natsu suggested excitedly. "That'll teach em' a lesson!"

"I'm game." Gray agreed.

"No, I don't think you should." Lucy protested. "Those guys aren't worth it. Maybe it'll be better if you just let it go."

"Let it go? Seriously?" Gajeel responded, in disbelief that she'd even suggest such a thing. "I don't think you understand. If I don't do something about this then they'll never learn to leave me the hell alone."

"But have you ever thought that maybe if you ignore it then it will eventually stop?"

"Yes. And I also considered the fact that I'll look like a total wimp if I do that as well."

The last part of the graffiti was cleaned off, and Gajeel inspected his car. It was back to normal, just the way he wanted it. But he was still upset.

"Finally!" he sighed in relief. "It's as good as new!"

"Sweet." Natsu said. "Now that that's all set and done, wanna come to the mall with us? We were gonna head over there before this whole mess happened."

"Well, I don't feel embarrassed riding in this thing anymore." Gajeel said. "So I guess I'll come with."

"Alright! Hey, maybe you should throw me your keys and let me drive us there!"

" _No!_ " Gray, Lucy, and Gajeel yelled out in unison.

"We've seen how you drive!" Gray stated. I am never getting in a car if you're behind the wheel!"

"Oh wow, I hit one mailbox." Natsu said back to him.

"There were more things than a mailbox, Natsu." Lucy said, remembering the last time Natsu was driving. "Besides, I think Gajeel's car has had enough of a bad day."

* * *

 _~3:43 PM~_

Natsu, Lucy, Gray, and Gajeel were sitting in the mall cafeteria. Joining them were their friends Mirajane Strauss and her younger sister Lisanna. They were already informed about the incident with Gajeel's car and the guys from Konoha a few minutes ago. After the girls tried to comfort him about his situation, they invited them all to come over their house to hang out. Everyone accepted, except Gajeel.

"I'm gonna be busy." Gajeel stated simply.

"Aw, alright." Mira said looking disappointed. "Well, we're still gonna have a lot of fun!"

"There's a monster movie marathon coming on tonight!" Natsu said smiling. "We've gotta watch it! It's going to be amazing!"

"Oh, yes!" Lisanna agreed, also smiling. "That sounds like a good idea!"

"Yes," Mira said with a sly expression. "I'm sure _you'd_ think that."

Lisanna grew a faint blush on her cheeks.

"M-Mira!"

Everyone at the table laughed except Lisanna, who was embarrassed and Natsu, who was just confused. Then all of a sudden, Gray looked at the far ends of the cafeteria. He immediately recognized two people he knew.

"Oh, look." he said. "It's Erza and Siegrain."

Everyone looked and saw them, Erza Scarlet and her boyfriend Siegrain Fernandez. The two of them didn't look happy though. They actually looked as if they were arguing. And when Erza turned around and saw the gang at the table she waved, and they all waved back at her. Siegrain looked at the table too, but he didn't wave, he just stared at them with a pissed look on his face. More specifically, it seemed like he was staring at Gray, which made Gray tense up a little.

Siegrain walked out of the mall and Erza joined them and they greeted her.

"Is everything ok?" Lucy asked with concern. "You two didn't look all that happy."

"Don't worry about it." Erza said, obviously not wanting to talk about it. "It's stupid."

Mirajane invited Erza to their little get together as well, and Erza accepted. She didn't bother asking if Siegrain would want to come along, because something told her she already knew the answer.

When Gajeel finished his food, he got up and announced that he was gonna go. They all said goodbye and Gajeel walked out of the mall with an angry expression on his face.

' _You don't do something like that to me.'_ he thought. _'Now look what you made me have to do.'_

* * *

 _~4:30 PM~_

Naruto Uzumaki and his friends were walking to a local burger place in the town. The names of his friends were Kiba Inuzuka and Choji Akimichi. Choji was eating out of a bag of jalapeño chips, and Kiba nor Naruto questioned him about it since they both knew that their friend was kind of a big eater, which is why they agreed they'd all pay their own way. While walking they noticed a house that belonged to a friend of theirs.

"Hey, it's Sasuke's house." Naruto said just before they could pass it. "We should ask if he wants to come."

The two agreed, and they walked up the steps and rang the doorbell. The one to answer the door was Sasuke Uchiha, looking a little surprised to see them there.

"Oh, hey." Sasuke said. "Didn't know you guys were coming over."

"We actually sorta happened to pass by your house." Choji explained, still munching.

"Yeah," Naruto added. "We actually wanted to see if-"

"Oh wait!" Kiba interrupted, smiling. "Naruto, before we forget, tell him what you did!"

Naruto laughed and so did Choji and Kiba. Sasuke just stood there confused and asked what they were talking about. Naruto told him about the little confrontation the three of them had with Gajeel and how he graffitied his car. Sasuke just sighed and a small smirk formed on his face.

"You guys never change." he said.

"Oh lighten up!" Naruto responded cheerfully. "Hey, you wanna come with us to get something to eat? We were just about to head there."

"No thanks, I got homework to do. And by that logic, so do you guys."

"Bah, there's plenty of time to finish it! It's not even that much!" Choji said, just running out of chips.

"Well, alright then." Sasuke said. "Do yourselves a favor and try to stay out of trouble."

"Yeah, yeah." Naruto said. "See ya later, dude."

* * *

Later, after they got out of the restaurant, the guys were ready to go home. Although, despite their idea to pay their own way, Choji ended up ordering a few more then his wallet could handle. In the end, Naruto and Kiba were forced to chip in a little to cover for their friend, but they didn't mind too much.

"Oh yeah, Naruto." Kiba said.

"Yeah?" Naruto responded.

"Forgot to ask. How are things going with Hinata?"

Naruto shot Kiba a look, making Choji and Kiba smirk.

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh come on, you know."

Naruto suddenly felt warm so he tried to air out his neck by pulling on his collar. He didn't care much for getting teased like this. And then his phone started to ring, so he pulled it out to check who was calling.

"I really don't." Naruto said while pulling out his phone.

When he checked it, the screen showed Hinata's name. She was actually calling him! If this wasn't a coincidence, he didn't know what was.

"I beg to differ." Kiba teased, with a sly expression.

"Whatever man." Naruto said, walking away from them in another direction.

"Hey where ya going?" Choji called out to him, laughing.

"Like i'd let you guys listen in on my phone calls!" Naruto called back to him.

Naruto walked a long distance until he went in an alleyway so he could answer the phone. He was very curious as to what she wanted. Hinata was a shy girl and actually didn't talk to him much. Whenever she was around him she would sometimes shy away and think of some excuse to leave. But he considered her a friend so they exchanged numbers.

"Hey, what's up Hinata?" Naruto answered.

"Umm, hi Naruto." Hinata said quietly. "I hope you weren't busy. If you were, then I could call back some other time."

"Nah, I'm not busy, just hanging out with Kiba and Choji. How are things with you?"

"Oh well, I'm good. I was, uh, just wondering since we've all heard about that theme park that's going to open up the week school ends, that y-you'd maybe be interested in coming to that with a-all of us?"

"Oh yeah! I've heard of that!"

"Y-yes! All of our friends would be there, and it seems like fun, so I just thought…"

"Yeah I was going to check that out when it came out anyway! Sure, I'd be interested!"

"Oh, that's good! Well, I'll see you there, Naruto."

"Yeah, it'll be a blast! See ya, Hinata!"

Naruto hung up the phone and put it back in his pocket, smiling. Hinata Hyuga was normally a shy girl, so he was surprised to see that she actually called him. He was happy though, because he thought maybe this would be a way for her to finally come out of her shell more. He turned around and walked out of the alleyway.

When he walked closer to the place he just walked away from, his eyes widened. His friends were lying on the concrete and four teenagers were standing over them. He yelled out to the teens and quickly ran over to his friends. When he got a closer look he couldn't recognize three of the guys, but one standing over Kiba's unconscious body was Gajeel. When Gajeel and his friends noticed Naruto coming, an evil smirk formed on his face.

"Well, well." Gajeel said. "Look who finally decided to join the party!"

Naruto stood in a defensive fighting stance. The odds really were not in his favor. Especially since one of Gajeel's friends in particular looked as if this wasn't the first fight he's been in. He's the one that looked the most intimidating, more intimidating than Gajeel, actually. Another guy with them was wearing some kind of mask and the other had long hair. They didn't exactly help out his chances of winning either.

"Gajeel, you bastard!" Naruto growled. "I'm gonna kick all your asses for this!"

"Hmph, this won't take more than five seconds." The intimidating one said in a low voice, smirking.

"Hold up, Laxus!" Gajeel protested. "I'm the one that's gonna take down Uzumaki! After all it was _my_ car that he messed up!"

"You didn't tell me that his friends would be this lame. I didn't come all the way here just to be bored. Besides, I hear you can actually fight, Uzumaki."

"We'll see then!" Naruto barked as he charged.

Naruto quickly dashed at Laxus and shot him with a powerful punch to the side of his face, leaving a bruise and making him wobble backwards. Anger flashed in Laxus's eyes, and when Naruto tried to follow up with another punch, Naruto was also struck in the face by Laxus's powerful left hook, causing some blood to spit out of his mouth. The two teens were blocking and punching each other, landing blows on each other's faces, making more bruises and blood emerge.

Then as if out of nowhere Gajeel charged and slugged Naruto down to the ground. The concrete scrapped Naruto's cheek a little, but that was the last thing he was thinking about.

"That was for my car." Gajeel said, smirking down at him.

Naruto quickly got up and was ready to fight two-on-one, but suddenly he was grabbed from behind by the masked one, who had him completely restrained.

"Come on now, Uzumaki!" he said laughing. "Take your beating like a man!"

"Dammit, let me go!" Naruto said while struggling to get free.

"That's it Bickslow." The long haired one said, finally deciding to join in. "Now let's get this over with."

Naruto hated how these guys were looking at him. They looked at him as if they'd already won. As if he were nothing but completely helpless at that point. In reality, that might be kinda true, but he would never admit it, he didn't want to admit it. He didn't want to accept the fact that these guys from Magnolia got the best of him, he absolutely hated the thought. However, he'd be lying if he said he knew any possible way at all to make this situation any better.

The Magnolia guys decided that Gajeel would get first punch, because it was his car that got ruined, after all. Naruto stared at Gajeel with infuriated eyes, and that only brightened Gajeel's mood to see his face trying to act tough before his total beat down. Gajeel walked up to Naruto, clenched his fist and prepared to strike, making Naruto close his eyes so he wouldn't see it coming.

But he didn't feel anything. Instead, he heard a loud "Uf!" and a crashing sound, making him assume someone just hit the ground. Then soon after he heard another crashing sound, meaning someone else just hit the ground. When he opened his eyes, he saw Gajeel and the long haired one both on the ground looking up at their attackers.

"You three have seen better days, Naruto." said a familiar voice.

"G-guys! You're here!" Naruto proclaimed, happy to see them.

Standing before Naruto were three of his friends, Sasuke Uchiha, Neji Hyuga, and Shikamaru Nara. With them here, this was a much more even playing field.

"Geez, we have to fight?" Shikamaru said in a bored tone. "This is so troublesome."

"Well when they mess with our own, we have no choice." Neji responded.

Laxus looked at the new comers, inspecting them. The three of them definitely knew how to fight.

"Well then." Laxus said. "I guess this might take a little longer than five seconds."

* * *

 **A.N: And that ends chapter 1! I hope you enjoyed it so far, if so then I'll try to write more! I don't know how consistent I'll be updating this story, but I'll try, trust me! Anyway, what's gonna happen next? Will the guys from Magnolia High get the beat down of a century, or will the Konoha High students find that they might be biting off more than they can chew? Only one way to find out! Keep an eye out for next chapter!**


	2. One Problem Solved?

**A.N: Here it is! Chapter 2 of the story! My goal was to publish it in the same month that I published Chapter 1. This chapter is a tad longer than the first one was, which was unintentional. But I think you'll like it anyway! Anyway, let's what happens. Read and review!**

* * *

Hinata hung up the phone and let out a huge sigh. She was able to accomplish something that she didn't think she'd ever be able to, and she couldn't be any happier at that moment in time.

"H-how was that?" she asked as she turned to the two girls who were sitting next to her in her bedroom. "That was good, right guys?"

"You did pretty good." the pink haired girl responded. "Although, the park actually starts the week _after_ school ends, not the same week."

Hinata's confidence went down more than a tad as she buried her face in her hands, and here she thought it went alright.

"I messed up!" she said miserably. "Maybe I should call back to correct myself?!"

"Calm down!" Hinata's blonde friend reassured as she patted her on the back. "Naruto got the jist of it, you did fine!"

"Ino's right!" the pink haired girl agreed, putting her hand on Hinata's shoulder. "It's such a small detail, it's easily overlooked!"

Her friends words seemed to have eased Hinata's mood a little. Hinata brought her face out from her palms. The two girls are called Ino Yamanaka and Sakura Haruno, they are Hinata's closest friends. Sakura and Ino occasionally have to raise Hinata's spirits, especially when it came to Naruto.

"Really?" Hinata asked, and they both nodded. "You're both probably right. Besides, if I call again, he'll think i'm pestering him."

"Oh please." Sakura said. "I doubt you could pester him. Naruto's never really doing anything important."

"True." Ino agreed. "Why, he and his friends are probably just hanging out talking about wrestling or something."

Hinata accepted this and smiled, she was relieved once again.

* * *

 _~Saturday, 4:51 PM~_

The Magnolia student known as Bickslow who was restraining Naruto stared in surprise as he witnessed what happened. Both of his friends were on the ground because of Naruto's friends. And as he gazed upon the scene, he unknowingly let go of Naruto.

"Freed, Gajeel!" Bickslow was able to say before Naruto whipped around with almost lightning speed and smashed his fist into Bickslow's face, knocking off his mask revealing his eyes and blue hair, and also making him stagger backwards.

Gajeel and Freed quickly got up and backed up toward where Laxus was standing. Bickslow quickly joined them. Sasuke, Neji, and Shikamaru went to where Naruto was standing, and then looked at the other group. The two groups of boys stared each other down, sizing each individual up. It was inevitable what was going to happen next.

"I'll take Scar-face." Naruto said referring to Laxus, which made Laxus's eyebrows slightly narrow.

"Hold up!" Gajeel protested angrily. "It was my car you ruined with that spray paint, so you're fighting me!"

"What a stupid reason to start all this." Sasuke said, glaring at glaring at Gajeel. "I think i'll take you on."

"Fine," Gajeel begrudgingly agreed, but then he smirked. "Come to think of it, you were the one who knocked me down. I can't let that slide."

"If that's the case, then I'll take out that one." Freed stated, pointing at Neji.

"Great," Shikamaru said unenthusiastically and staring at Bickslow. "I guess that leaves me with the weird guy who keeps sticking his tongue out."

"Fine then." Laxus said, cracking his neck. "Let's start."

They all spread out. The Konoha boys made sure to lead their opponents farther away from Kiba and Choji so their unconscious bodies wouldn't be trampled or tripped on. When the Konoha High students gained the distance they wanted, they each went into their fighting stance. Each of the boys circled around their partner, looking at them cautiously to find an opening. Anticipation grew, and when Gajeel threw the first punch, which Sasuke was able to avoid by swiftly moving to his left, that was the undecided signal to start the brawl.

Fists started flying, knuckles hit skin, bruises appeared, blood started to drip, the fight was on. There wasn't one punch that didn't have any emotion behind it. This situation may seem intense, but in reality it was the norm, just another clash between the Magnolia Mages and Konoha Ninjas. It's all about dominance.

Naruto did fairly well against Laxus, but Laxus's punches hit hard, _real_ hard. Halfway into the fight Naruto gained even more bruises on his arms just from blocking the dude, but in the heat of the moment he didn't even notice the pain. Laxus got a good few wounds on him as well, he had a dark bruise above his left eye and he was bleeding good, but he kept at it.

Neji was able to fend off Freed. They were both good fighters, but Neji had a background knowledge of pressure points on the body, which gained him the advantage. Freed was able to bust Neji's lip and make him bleed a little, but more than occasionally when Neji would hit him Freed would wince, allowing Neji to land blows to his face.

Despite his uncaring attitude, Shikamaru fought well against Bickslow, in fact, the worst injury he got from the Magnolia kid was a small bruise under his right eye, while Bickslow had blood trickling from his nose and mouth. Bickslow was eventually able to step up his game and landed a powerful left hook to Shikamaru's face which made him stagger back, but he quickly recovered and kept fighting.

Sasuke got some good wounds on him thanks to Gajeel. It was clear by the way he fights that Gajeel had been in more street fights than him. But that didn't help him much, because Sasuke was still able to match all of his blows. Who would win the fight between those two was anyone's guess.

Soon enough, Freed was the first one to fall due to a final blow Neji landed to his face. Soon afterward, Bickslow shared the same fate. Naruto shoved Laxus away from him, and Laxus's eyes widened at his two allies who were on the ground. Gajeel noticed this as well, and slowly all four of the Konoha students were closing in on them.

"Freaking weak." Laxus said under his breath as he glared at his two allies.

"I don't freaking believe this." Gajeel said, also glaring at them.

"Hey." Sasuke said, walking up to Gajeel. Gajeel looked back up, before he could even comprehend what was about to happen Sasuke had blasted his fist into Gajeel's face, blackening his left eye and making him stagger backward.

"That was for my two friends." Sasuke said coldly.

The situation had turned now that Naruto's friends were here. If Laxus and Gajeel tried to continue this fight, then they would all just gang up on the two, so the odds wouldn't be in their favor at all. Gajeel looked at Laxus, and Laxus looked back at Gajeel. Then after a few seconds they looked back at the Konoha boys.

"All right." Laxus said in utter disgust. "You win, for now." With that said, he and Gajeel helped up Freed and Bickslow and started to walk away.

"Yeah, and don't come around here again!" Naruto roared at them as they kept walking.

When the Magnolia students were farther away, Naruto and his gang went up to Choji and Kiba, who were just starting to regain consciousness. After making sure the two were alright, they told them about how all four of them fought off their attackers and forced them to retreat. Kiba and Choji were happy about that.

"Man, we could've handled them if they fought fair." Choji said smiling. "But they just came at the both of us at once."

"Don't worry about it Choji, they're gone now." Shikamaru reassured.

"But have any of you ever seen that one with the oddly shaped scar on his eye?" Naruto asked. But no one could give him an answer.

"Oh yeah, by the way, what are you guys doing here anyway?" Naruto also asked. "Not that i'm not glad."

"Well I finished my homework early and decided to take a walk." Sasuke answered. "But Shikamaru and Neji came along offering to hang out, so I accepted. We were gonna go see if you guys were still in the burger place, but when we came we stumbled upon this mess."

"Well, I can't thank you guys enough!" Naruto stated cheerfully, Kiba and Choji also thanked them.

"No need for thanks." Neji responded smiling. "Of course we're going to help. We might need to watch our backs for a bit, though. We have no idea what they might try to do next."

With all that said, Naruto and Sasuke helped Kiba and Choji up and everyone got into Shikamaru's car and drove off.

* * *

 _~5:15 PM~_

At Mira and Lisanna's house, Natsu and everyone else who was invited(minus Gajeel) was sitting in a circle in the living room, hanging out and playing a game with each other.

" _I spent my whole life working toward_ BLANK _only to have it ruined by_ BLANK," Mira read. "All right, put in two cards in an order that would fit."

Everyone put their cards next to Mira, and she flipped them over to read them. She going to read the previous sentence while putting in whatever was on the cards given to her in the blank spaces.

"Read mine first!" Natsu said as he pointed to his, which made everyone groan.

"You're not supposed to tell which one is yours, pinky." Gray explained, unamused.

"Whatever, mine is perfect!" Natsu insisted.

Mira did what was requested and read Natsu's cards allowed in the phrase.

" _I spent my whole life working toward cat shelters,"_ she read. " _Only to have it be ruined by Chinese Immigration."_

Everybody started snickering, and Natsu smiled triumphantly.

"Damn Natsu," Lucy said but still laughing.

"Hey it's a party game for horrible people," Natsu responded. "Says it right on the box."

Everyone was laughing, as horrible as it was they had to admit it fit perfectly. Erza was also laughing, but suddenly she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. Her smile faded when she checked who was calling, it was Siegrain.

"Hmm, I should probably take this." She said before letting out a small sigh and getting up to walk into the hallway leading out of the living room. The rest of the gang had looks of genuine concern on their faces as they watched her walk off. Erza accepted the call and held the phone up to her ear and tried to talk as quietly as possible.

"What?" Erza said coldly.

"Hey, you hanging out with your friends?" Siegrain said on the other end of the phone. "Could've at least invited me."

"How did you know that?" Erza asked in a slightly annoyed but surprised tone.

"Well you're not at your house, so lucky guess. Will you just talk to me?"

"I've already talked to you enough!" Erza harshly whispered, slightly louder than she wanted. "We've already talked about this in both private _and_ public. Now I've got go my fri-"

"Gray's there isn't he?" Siegrain interrupted, making Erza massage her temple in frustration.

"Oh my god, Siegrain." Erza said. "Look, i'm gonna go."

"It's a yes or no question, I just want to know." Siegrain responded, but Erza simply said goodbye and hung up the phone and then put her phone on silent. She then took a deep breath and walked back to her friends, who were staring at her.

"Was that Siegrain?" Lisanna asked, and Erza nodded.

"You don't seem that happy about it." Lucy said to Erza. "You weren't the happiest camper at the mall either, wanna talk about it?"

Erza had observant friends, they could all easily tell when one of their own was acting differently. She figured it might be for the best if she just tell them what's up.

"Well," Erza started. "He doesn't seem to be the person he was a while back when we first started going out. He's gotten more...clingy. And the most recent thing he's done was what happened today, when he punched some guy just because he thought the guy was trying to come on to me. He even knocked the poor kid's tooth out! And that's why we were arguing at the mall."

"Damn." Natsu said. "He knocked his tooth out? Well, I guess that's not surprising since he's a boxer."

"What are you gonna do?" Gray asked curiously.

"Dunno." Erza admitted. "He needs to get his act together soon, though."

"Well whatever decision you make we're behind you." Lucy said putting her hand on Erza's shoulder. The redhead smiled.

"Yeah, I know." Erza responded.

She decided to leave out the part about her boyfriend's threatened attitude towards Gray. Erza guessed she could probably settle things with Siegrain without that piece of information, and also she didn't want one of her relationships with her friends to shift in any way.

"So we gonna keep playing?" Lisanna said, trying to change the subject.

"Yeah!" Natsu agreed. "Although I don't know if I'll get another one as good as the one I had. Man, I wish Gajeel was here, he would've loved that."

They all agreed that it would be fun if Gajeel was there with them. But while they were curious as to what he was doing at the moment, they all had a fairly decent idea of what he was actually doing.

"Hope the metal head didn't get into too much trouble." Lucy sighed as she picked up her cards and resumed the game.

* * *

There was silence as Laxus, Freed, Bickslow, and Gajeel walked on the lonely sidewalks leading out of Konoha toward Magnolia. Shame, bitterness, embarrassment, anger, and many more negative emotions were in the atmosphere. Finally, Freed thought that he should say something to break the silence.

"Laxus, we-" Freed said before he was interrupted.

"I don't like retreating." Laxus stated angrily. "How the hell could you guys go down so fast? And you, Gajeel! Why didn't you say Uzumaki had more friends?"

"How the hell was I supposed to know?" Gajeel responded, with the same amount of anger as Laxus. "Them being here was probably just a coincidence. And you shouldn't be complaining anyway, like I said when I called you out here you owe me for taking the wrap for you at school when they found out you brought alcohol on school grounds."

"And your suspension is over while mine remains until the end of this school year." Laxus said. "So good freaking job."

No one there was in a good mood at all, for this day they were bested by the Konoha ninjas. They each agreed on one thing though, that they would eventually get those guys back for what happened. And this was a promise that they all were dead set on keeping.

* * *

 _~Monday, 1:45 AM~_

The history teacher at Magnolia high was in the middle of his lesson. Gray sat there in his seat bored out of his mind, not paying attention at all. He kept staring at the clock, wondering why this class wasn't over yet. Just when he was ready to practice sleeping with his eyes open, Gajeel walked through the door, and was fifteen minutes late.

But that's not everyone was alarmed at, when Gajeel walked into better view, they could see he was not in his best condition. He had bruises and bandages on his face, and most notably, everyone could see that he got a black eye on his left side.

"Late as usual, Redfox?" the teacher said to Gajeel, pausing in his lesson. "And you've been playing with some friends, I see. Ya know, sometimes, I don't know why you even come."

"Yeah, yeah." Gajeel said, brushing off the history teacher's words as he gave him his pass for being late. He then proceeded to go sit down to his assigned seat.

"Yo, what happened to you man?" Loke, the student who sits next to Gajeel, asked, trying to not let the teacher hear him.

"I don't want to talk about it." Gajeel quietly responded, and he left it at that.

Gray looked over at Gajeel and examined him. Even though he wasn't there, he knew exactly what happened, he went after Konoha for what they did to his car. Gray couldn't blame him, that would piss anyone off, he just hoped Gajeel at least kicked their asses good enough.

As the minutes passed, Gray was bored out of his mind. He decided to just discreetly pull his phone out from his pocket to just fool around on it to pass time. Luckily for him, he sat in the back of the class so the teacher couldn't see him that well. The first thing Gray noticed was that his phone alerted him that he received a text message. When he checked to see who sent it, Gray was utterly confused.

' _Siegrain?'_ Gray thought. _'What could he possibly want?'_

Gray looked the message, and it read as followed:

 _meet me after this class at the downstairs locker bay in the west wing. we need 2 talk_

Gray never was too chummy with Siegrain to be honest, but when Erza and him first started dating Erza thought it would be a good idea for everyone to exchange numbers with him. But this was the first time Siegrain actually contacted him, and the fact he'd request something like this now was confusing to him. What could Siegrain want?

* * *

Finally, the class was over, and Gray couldn't be anymore relieved at it, for some reason that lecture was even more boring than normal. But that's not what the dark haired boy was thinking about at the moment. He did as Siegrain requested and went to the location he had said for them to meet. When Gray thought he saw Siegrain standing to the corner, he walked up to him.

"Hey, I got your text." Gray said, approaching the boy. "What's goin' on?"

But upon further inspection, Gray immediately knew that it wasn't Siegrain at all. The boy who looked almost exactly like Siegrain looked up from his phone and put on a confused face.

"Oh, sorry Jellal." Gray apologized, laughing at his mistake. "I mistook you for your brother."

"Hm?" Jellal responded, realizing Gray's misunderstanding. "It's cool, that's bound to happen sometime or another."

That teenage boy's name is Jellal Fernandez, he's the twin brother of Siegrain. Well, to be more precise, he's his triplet brother. Jellal and Siegrain's other brother is named Mystogan, but he went to study abroad. The only real way to tell the difference between Jellal and Siegrain is that Siegrain has a scar that runs over his right eye and slightly down his temple that he got from a car accident years ago. Also, Siegrain's hair is completely combed back, revealing his forehead. Jellal on the other hand has no scars on his face and he has hair that is more free looking, and he also has bangs that completely conceal his forehead. Really the only thing that Siegrain and Jellal have in common is their blue hair and their red family crest that they both have tattooed on the right side of both of their faces.

Gray and Jellal said their goodbyes as Jellal walked off. And almost as quickly as Jellal left, Gray could feel someone tap his shoulder, and that someone was Siegrain, who had a very sour look on his face.

"What's going on, Fullbuster?" Siegrain asked before Gray could even greet him.

"Umm, not sure." Gray honestly admitted, confused. "You were the one who sent the text."

"Don't play dumb with me." Siegrain said, glaring at Gray the same way he glared at him in the mall. "Were you with Erza on Saturday?"

"We were all with her." Gray said, with more seriousness in his voice. "Natsu, Lucy, Mira, Lisanna, and me."

"Fine." Siegrain accepted. "Answer me this though, why wouldn't Erza answer my question when I asked if you specifically were there?"

Gray was getting annoyed. Siegrain was basically interrogating him, which he didn't like in the least. For some reason Siegrain was threatened by Gray's presence around Erza, and he had absolutely no idea why.

"Just what are you on about?" Gray asked, not caring if his annoyance was shown in his tone.

"What am I on about?" Siegrain repeated, sounding louder than intended. "It's just a simple question. What is it with you people and not wanting to answer simple questions?"

"And _my_ simple question is what the hell are you on about?" Gray responded. Although he knew exactly what Siegrain was on about.

People started staring at the two in the corner, listening in on the conversation. Neither of them noticed the crowd of students looking at them.

Lucy and Erza were walking through the hall and quickly noticed the students in the locker bay were looking at something. When they turned to see what, Erza felt sick to her stomach.

' _Oh my god, why?'_ Erza thought to herself.

"I've seen the way you look at her, Gray." Siegrain continued, with slight anger in his voice. "You don't look at her the way you look at any other girl."

"And how would you know how I look at other girls?" Gray said. "I look at Erza the same way I look at everyone else I meet."

"So you're telling me the way you look at me would be the same way you look at Erza?" Siegrain asked.

"No, I don't." Gray responded, irritated. Siegrain was becoming increasingly more agitated.

"What the hell?" Siegrain practically yelled. "You just said you look at Erza the same way you look at everyone else, and now you're saying the way you look at me is different than the way you look at her? What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"It means I don't hate her." Gray simply stated before turning around and walking away. Siegrain was furious now, he grabbed Gray's shoulder to try and keep him where he was but Gray forcefully smacked his arm away from him before he could do anything. Erza walked up to the two boys and got in between them.

"Enough!" She yelled, mainly at Siegrain. "Siegrain, what is the matter with you?! Why are you interrogating my friends?!"

"I'm just asking him questions and he's getting all pissy!" Siegrain defended. "I'm not interrogating any-"

"I'm sick of your questions!" Erza interrupted. "I can't do this anymore, you're acting like a maniac!"

"Ok, I see what's happening." Siegrain said, with a small smile. "You're obviously on your period, I understand. We can try to patch things up tomorrow, I guess."

Erza couldn't believe what she just heard came out of the boy's mouth. It was clear to her that Siegrain didn't understand her at all.

"We're done, Siegrain." Erza said coldly, glaring at her now ex-boyfriend. "This obviously isn't working."

Siegrain's eyes widened at her words. He tried to say something, but he couldn't find the words. Instead, all he could do was look at his ex-girlfriend as she stood next to Gray, and now Lucy, who had just walked up. Gray, Lucy, and Erza walked off to their next classes, and Siegrain was left standing there as students stared at him as they also walked off to class.

* * *

 _~2:56 PM~_

Sasuke and Sakura tried to keep up with Naruto as he ran to the building ahead. They just got out of school, and Naruto had the biggest grin on his face, while Sasuke and Sakura just looked slightly annoyed. Sakura and the rest of their friends were informed on the recent run-in with Gajeel and his friends. Despite all that, she wondered how Naruto could have the strength to run despite the fact that he was hurting all over still.

"Naruto, come on!" Sakura called out to him, panting. "That video game's not gonna go anywhere!"

"Sakura, today is the launch!" Naruto called back at her, still running. "Of course it will!"

"He's got a point." Sasuke said to her.

The video game store was located in the area that's in between Magnolia and Konoha. The game officially arrived to the store today, and Naruto needed to make sure to get his today. Sakura and Sasuke decided to wait outside. He entered the store as fast as possible and went to the appropriate aisle until he found what he was looking for.

It was your average fighting game, but Naruto had been waiting for it to come out for months. And just his luck, there was one left! However, just as he grabbed it, someone else's hand grabbed it also. Naruto's eyes narrowed at the other hand.

' _Oh hell no.'_ Naruto thought as he looked over and immediately noticed the other boy's uniform. He was from Magnolia.

The boy's hair was pink, just like Sakura's, although his hair was darker. Naruto assumed this was probably what would happen if Sakura and him ever had a baby. The pink haired boy noticed Naruto's uniform as well and eyed him cautiously.

"Wassup." the pink haired boy said, pulling the game closer to him.

"Sup. I'm just gonna…" Naruto pulled the game away from the Magnolia kid.

"Yeah, no." said the Magnolia kid, pulling the game away from Naruto. "Pretty sure I saw it first."

"My hand was clearly on it before yours, pal." Naruto said back at him, trying to pull the game out of the boy's grip.

The two of them both had a small tug of war with this video game, both of them knew that this was the last copy and there wouldn't be more for about a week. Out of nowhere, a blonde girl walked up to the two of them. This slightly alarmed Naruto even more, because she was also wearing a Magnolia High uniform. But what she said surprised him.

"Natsu, just give him the game!" the blonde girl ordered.

"What?!" the one now named Natsu protested. "Lucy, I saw it first!"

"His hand was on it first though, I saw it!" Lucy said back to Natsu. "Come on, just hurry up so we can leave! Besides, there will be even more next week, right?"

Natsu thought about it for a moment, he wanted the game _now._ But deep down he knew that Naruto did grab it first. So as painful as it was, Natsu let go of the game, and Naruto just stared.

"Fine." Natsu said, pouting. "Take it. I'm probably still better at it than you."

"Umm, thanks." Naruto said to both of them. This kinda felt weird, because he wasn't used to thanking anyone from Magnolia High, but it was nice of them.

After he payed for the game, he walked outside and rejoined his friends. Sasuke and Sakura eyed Naruto suspiciously.

"So you got those Magnolia students to give you the game?" Sakura said. She saw it all through the store window.

"No." Naruto answered. "They just gave it to me."

"Interesting." Sasuke admitted.

"See? Not everything has to end in an all-out brawl between us." Sakura stated, smiling as he three of them walked back home.

"Well, uh." Naruto looked at the game, and then back at the two Magnolia students as they both walked out of the store and back to their town. "I guess."

* * *

 _~7:30 PM~_

Jellal was in his room, he finally finished his homework. He let out a loud sigh and was ready to relax and watch TV when he heard someone enter in through the front door. Siegrain walked passed Jellal's room and into his own. Jellal noticed that Siegrain had wrapped some sort of cloth around both of his hands, and both of them looked as if they had blood on them.

Curious, Jellal walked up to Siegrain's room and looked at his brother as he turned on his PS4 and plugged in a fighting game that he bought before school started. Jellal heard about Siegrain's rather heated break up, but he knew better than to pry.

"Where you been, bro?" Jellal asked as he watched Siegrain press buttons on his controller.

"No where important." Siegrain responded without looking up at his brother.

Jellal went into Siegrain's room and watched at how amazing his twin was at this video game. It seemed as if he was playing online, and he was sending out a crazy amount of combos, not even letting the other player do anything. Jellal noticed that Siegrain's health bar was perfect, but the other player's health bar was almost completely depleted.

"Holy crap!" Jellal exclaimed. "Geez, I don't understand how crazy good you are at these games."

For a split second, the other player was able to get out of Siegrain's combo and hit it his character once, depleting Siegrain's health. However that was all the guy was able to do before Siegrain pressed the appropriate buttons to do his finisher, allowing him to win the match.

Siegrain stared at the small sliver of health that was gone due to that one deal of damage that the player online was able to do against him.

"I'm pretty good." Siegrain said to his brother. "Just not good enough."

* * *

 **A.N: Wow...Some stuff happened in this chapter, huh? Yeah, watch out for Siegrain. He's gonna be one of the main antagonists in this story! Anyway, how are you guys liking this story so far? I'd really like to know so reviews are greatly appreciated! Not sure when I'll post chapter 3 but if people tell me they like this story, then I'd be more motivated to post it! With that said, hope you liked it and have a good day/night!**

 **P.S If you can tell me what game they were playing at Mira's house, you're really awesome lol**


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